Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[ottbjumper06]

The picture is a bit blurry, from what I see, looks like pullet, cockerel, second pic seems to show yellow in the legs which you do not want. Ideally, they would have feathered shanks and outside toe.

ETA: OOPS! Second pic looks like a 'he', lighter color, saddle feathers, sorry!

Thank you! I'll get better pictures soon when it's not so chilly here. I was confused because there is no comb development at all on either birds, and they both look very similar. Is that common in this breed?

 

[ladycat]

Male chickens definitely play favorites. He may not be breeding that hen. Do you have a small enclosure where you can put just two of them? So if she is avoiding the male, she will have a harder time doing so? Say a 4' X 4" or 4' x 8' pen? Or even a huge dog crate, as long as it is high so the rooster can mate? You can try the food coloring trick. I've never tried it myself, but supposedly if you put some food coloring in the hen's vent, for the next day or two, the coloring will show up on the egg shell. A way to see which is laying. You can also move each hen in turn into a small pen until they lay an egg to see which one is laying tan. If you want to improve on egg color on your splash Marans, then why bother hatching from those tan eggs anyway? It is recommended to hatch only the darkest eggs to improve egg color. If they were my birds, I'd identify which hen is laying the light eggs and move her into a laying pen and not use her for breeding.

Yeah I know you're supposed to choose the darkest eggs, but I have such a tiny gene pool.

What I had planned was hatching from this trio, then changing out roosters, and hatch from the same hens and other rooster.

Then I would breed the pullets from those two matings to BCMs to produce blues and THEN start choosing for dark eggs.

Looks like my starting gene pool will be even smaller than I hoped.

 

[roxysmydog]

I bought 3 BCM hens and a BCM roo off CL a month or so ago. I have been looking for this breed for a while and got lucky one day! I currently have them separated but am hoping to bring them in with the rest of my flock soon. Since I had them separated, I collected the fertilized eggs and have 21 eggs in the incubator right now, just 6 days in. It's my first time trying to hatch anything. I was told these BCMs are from the Wade Jean line and they do have feathered feet. Their eggs aren't as dark as I've seen in pics but darker than my brown layers.

 

[Blarneyeggs]

[COLOR=0000FF]The picture is a bit blurry, from what I see, looks like pullet, cockerel, second pic seems to show yellow in the legs which you do not want. Ideally, they would have feathered shanks and outside toe.[/COLOR]


ETA: OOPS! Second pic looks like a 'he', lighter color, saddle feathers, sorry!

Thank you! I'll get better pictures soon when it's not so chilly here. I was confused because there is no comb development at all on either birds, and they both look very similar. Is that common in this breed?

Okay then, better pictures especially of the comb and wattles are in order. Ill cross my fingers for you that they are both pullets!

 

[cdonze43]

Anyone know of any breeders in the Missouri area? I just want two pullets/hens for the egg color and they don't need to be show quality. I can't have any roosters.
Any help is appreciated.
Thank you

 

[TulsaChick]

I wa

...

Thank you for the replies!  The hen came from another member on this list, in a round about way, who assures us that the hen was hatched last December.  Although to me she appears to have an 'old' looking face with narrow slit eyes.  The front of her comb does lay to the side and we do realize that she is not SOP quality for breeding.  We did at least expect her to lay and wondered what would keep a hen from laying.  She has no back feather loss and shows no sign of being rode.  Another quality about her is that she seems to be very squinty eyed, although she seems to be able to see ok and eats well, but not heavy.  

PS,  She free ranges, gets fermented feed, layena, and scratch.
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When I had low production someone suggested worming

 

[TulsaChick]

Thanks for the

It's mid 30's here at night now.  They will, eventually, lay.  

e thanks for the encouragement one finally laid Yipee

 

[TulsaChick]

My ladies

 

[TulsaChick]

Spoiled thing

 

[KsKingBee]

TulsaChick, how old are your pullets in the above picture?